5 signs your company needs an ERP

Monday, March 26, 2018
By:
Christine

When you started your business, you may have invested in systems for different departments. After all, there was no real need to connect them together. Now, however, your sales team is asking for information from your marketing team and the team is demanding more visibility from other departments. An ERP system captures information from all departments, and it may be time for you to implement it within your organization.

Here are 5 signs that make it clear your business will benefit from an ERP system:

Your current business systems don’t talk to each other.

When your company started out, each department may have selected its own software system based on its individual requirements. Unfortunately, as a company expands, these separate systems create ‘data siloes’ that keeps the information invisible to the rest of the departments.

To compensate, your team members may spend time on data re-entry, verification, or duplication. This can wreak havoc on your company in many ways:

You put your company at risk for letting mission-critical business data slip through the cracks.

You increase the risk of human error.

Your employees can become frustrated with having to re-enter or verify the data within the system or between departments, leading to a lower workforce engagement and higher turnover rates.

With an ERP system, the data is shared and updated automatically when changes are made. This frees up your resources to spend time on tasks that are more meaningful.

Your company can’t access key information

Here is the million-dollar question: what is the point of collecting data if you can’t act on it?

If you are unable to analyze your information and get better, something needs to change. Effective business intelligence is trending in the professional workforce, because executives know data is the key to getting ahead of their competition.

ERP systems store your data within a centralized system, making it easier to gather the data. These systems will also have robust reporting and data visualization features that make it easier to make decisions moving forward.

You can’t access your data on the go.

These days, it’s expected that you equip your team with access to data and drive your business from outside of the office. Whether it’s your sales team or your service team, employees want to be resourceful and productive.

Your leadership team also needs access to data when they are outside of the office. The business does not stop when they are out of the office. For executives, the key to effective decision-making is easy access to up-to-date information.

Offering your employees a way to access and update key information from mobile devices allows your company to continue growing.

Your IT is expensive.

Managing different systems for each of your departments can get expensive quickly. You end up paying licensing fees for multiple systems, plus any custom plugins or customizations to make the system fit your existing processes. Even with all the unnecessary costs, you may still come across functionalities that don’t quite work as you planned. Cut the costs with an ERP system that works across departments. You’ll free up your IT team to work on new initiatives, rather than break-fix tasks.

Your company can’t grow.

When your systems can no longer keep up with your employees and your team creates “workarounds” to perform their job duties, it’s time to rethink your processes. An ERP can help automate these workarounds and keep all the data together in a dashboard that will help you make key decisions.

Reducing the number of software systems in your company makes it easier for your team to work. If you’re looking into ERP systems, give yourself a pat on the back. You are well on your way to growing your business.